Shelton v. State
| Decision Date | 26 February 1980 |
| Docket Number | 8 Div. 296 |
| Citation | 384 So.2d 869 |
| Parties | James Earl SHELTON v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
James M. Dyer, Huntsville, for appellant.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., George Hardesty, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Robbery; sentence: thirty-five years imprisonment.
Around 9:00 p. m. on December 21, 1978, the appellant and another entered the Quick Service Beverage Store in Madison and robbed it of approximately $500. During the commission of the crime, the appellant shot and wounded the attendant, Mark Bailey, in the leg. The appellant, after being informed by friends that the police were looking for him, voluntarily entered the Huntsville Police Department wherein he was arrested.
Appellant contends that the trial court erred to reversal in denying him the opportunity of a voir dire examination of a State's witness. He asserts that denial of such prevented him from illustrating the impermissibly suggestive nature of a photographic array shown to the victim.
During the direct examination of the victim, appellant's counsel requested and was granted an in camera examination of the witness to ascertain whether he had an independent source of information from which to identify the appellant other than the photographic array. Upon completing that examination, counsel further requested that he be allowed to take a prospective State's witness, Madison Police Detective Eugene Marsh, on voir dire. The trial court denied the request indicating that it would be more appropriate at that point in the trial when Detective Marsh would be called as a witness.
A trial court is not obliged to take witnesses out of turn merely because opposing counsel wants to examine them on voir dire at counsel's convenience. The trial judge is vested with discretion in the conduct of a trial, and appellate courts will not interfere unless there has been a clear abuse of that discretion. Townsell v. State, 255 Ala. 495, 52 So.2d 186 (1951); Carson v. State, 49 Ala.App. 413, 272 So.2d 619 (1973). The trial judge has a duty to move the testimony expeditiously along. Gulley v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 342 So.2d 1362 (1977). Here, the trial court allowed the appellant's counsel to take one witness on voir dire examination. It was certainly not an abuse of the trial court's discretion to refuse to allow the defense counsel to additionally call a prospective State's witness out of turn for another voir dire examination. See: Wilbanks v. State, 289 Ala. 166, 266 So.2d 619 (1970); Holifield v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 347 So.2d 559, cert. denied, Ala., 347 So.2d 561 (1977); Sims v. State, 51 Ala.App. 183, 283 So.2d 635 (1973).
Appellant contends that the victim's in-court identification had been tainted by an impermissibly suggestive photographic array. We note at the outset that the appellant made no motion to suppress the array, nor raised any objection to its introduction into evidence. Only after such was received into evidence and testimony relating to it was taken did the appellant through his motion to exclude the State's evidence raise this contention. At that point his objection came too late in order to preserve any error on appeal. Objections to the introduction of evidence must be made at the time the evidence is offered. Beckley v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 353 So.2d 542 (1977). See also: Smith v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 344 So.2d 1239, cert. denied, Ala., 344 So.2d 1243 (1977); Slinker v. State,...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Thompson v. State, 6 Div. 799
...unless there has been an abuse of discretion. The trial judge has a duty to move the testimony expediously along. Shelton v. State, 384 So.2d 869 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 384 So.2d 871 (Ala.1980)." Tombrello, supra at 1322; Turner v. State, 473 So.2d 639 (Ala.Crim.App.1985). "Furthermor......
-
Baker v. State
...interfere with the exercise of that discretion unless it clearly appears that there has been an abuse of discretion. Shelton v. State, 384 So.2d 869, 870 (Ala. Cr.App.), cert. denied, 384 So.2d 871 (Ala. 1980)." Carden v. State, 621 So.2d 342, 346 (Ala.Crim.App.1992). See also Rheuark v. St......
-
Johnson v. State
...So.2d 376, 378 (Ala.Crim.App.1993) (noting that “the trial judge has the duty to move the testimony expeditiously along. Shelton v. State, 384 So.2d 869 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 384 So.2d 871 (Ala.1980).”). Thus, we find no error, plain or otherwise, with regard to this claim.XVI. Johns......
-
Rheuark v. State
...unless there has been an abuse of that discretion. The trial judge has a duty to move the testimony expeditiously along. Shelton v. State, 384 So.2d 869 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 384 So.2d 871 (Ala.1980).' Tombrello v. State, 421 So.2d 1319, 1322 (Ala.Cr.App.1982). See also Thompson v. S......